Paul Simoneachi (r.) with his attorney Matthew Mari, where he pleaded guilty to grand larceny as a hate crime.

A Bay Ridge insurance broker admitted on Tuesday to taking advantage of 21 elderly residents by scamming them out of $4.5 million in retirement plans and savings.

Paul Simoneachi, 70, of Staten Island, was originally charged with scamming 13 people, including some Italian immigrants, by recommending they surrender their insurance policies and invest the money with him. He then pocketed almost $2.5 million.

Since his arrest in September, eight more victims came forward raising the stolen funds to $4.5 million, prosecutors said.

Simoneachi pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Supreme Court Tuesday to grand larceny as a hate crime. He’ll be sentenced to four to 12 years in prison and has to repay all the money.

Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said the father of four adult kids ran the scam from 2009 to 2014, and even targeted his friends.

“Shamefully, this defendant destroyed the retirements of elderly people who trusted him with their life savings,” Thompson said. “Some of them considered him a friend, but that did not stop him from taking advantage of their age and lack of financial knowledge to steal their money.”

Simoneachi "tried to conceal his crimes" by providing false documents to the victims, aged between 60 to 94, and gave them checks that were supposedly distributions from their policies or accounts, but which were actually checks from other accounts he controlled, prosecutors said.

One of his victim's was left with a $2000 balance — down from $300,000.

"My client is ready to pay his debt to society. If he survives prison, he will pay back all the money owed," said Simoneachi's attorney Mathew Mari outside of court.